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Facebook Announces Changes to Privacy Settings

Facebook is planning to roll out a series of updates to its privacy settings by the end of the year.

In the past, the social network has struggled with offering its members user-friendly privacy controls. Facebook is hoping a more educational approach will help ease concerns.

Some of the changes are fairly straightforward. For example, there’s fewer options hidden behind menus, making it easier for you to change your privacy settings without leaving the News Feed. Additionally, the company has introduced a faster way to untag multiple photos and a two-step app authorization process.

The new app permissions process is particularly important for businesses and brands. Now people can agree to let your app access their information, but deny it the ability to make posts on their behalf. Sharing activity within the app was one way brands could count on extra awareness.

On the other hand, some changes will have a much bigger impact on how you interact with Facebook. The social network will soon make everyone’s Timeline searchable. Previously you could control this through the “Who can look up my Timeline by name” setting — which has already been removed for those that weren’t using it.

Additionally, Facebook has redesigned the activity log, which includes an itemized view of every action you’ve taken on the social network or with Facebook-connected apps. We should note that you can only see your activity log and not those of others.

These changes might not have a direct implication on Pages, but it’s worth being aware of them as you continue managing your personal account on Facebook. You can learn more about each update in detail by visiting Facebook’s Newsroom.

Jennifer Beese: Jennifer Beese has worked as a community manager and social media strategist. When she’s not writing, you can find her studying anatomy and physiology—she literally has a skeleton in her closet—or under the stars with her telescope.